When Nasa discovered this "face", at first they didn't know what to say. So they just passed it as another "Martian Mesa". "Scientist figured it was just another Martian Mesa, common enough around Cydonia, only this one had unusual shadows that made it look like an Egyptian Pharaoh. Eighteen years later after the Viking space trip, they decided to take more photos of it. The technology improved so it was giving them a clearer image. They got the pictures, and soon put them out for the public to see. "The authors reasoned it would be a good way to engage the public and attract attention to Mars". Thousands of people that were waiting for this image soon saw it was just a landform, "JPL website, revealing...a natural landform, There was no alien monument after all". Then later they figured out that the picture was acually a butte or mesa. "What the picture actually shows is the Martian equivalent of a butte or mesa, landforms common around the American West". Garvin says, "It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho, thats a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars".